The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1887-01-22
COunferfeiting.
MAKING SPURIOUS INVITATIONS OF AMERI-
CAN MONEY.

The counterfeiting at present IS con-
fined almost entirely to the coin issues
of the Government, writes Washing
ton correspondent of the New York
W0rla. 1t is not generally known that
the nickels and the pennies are very
successfully counterfeited and that there
is no possible means of detecting the
spurious from the genuine. The nickel
afford very handsome profit. All the
counterfeiters have to do is to 60 to the
Revised Statutes and there they find the
materials to be used in their making.
All of the metal employed is base. A
nickle costs the Government about one
cent and quarter. If the Government
had the exclusive manufacture of these
coins there would be great profit in
them. But the coin can be so easily re-
produced that there is no means of es-
timating how many of them are put out
of the counterfeit class. If the govern
ment should decide to call in this class
of coin they would have to redeem the
counterteits as we'll, because they are all
made of exactly the same material as the
governments issue. The bronze pen
nies are also counterfeited. There is a
profit in this. The bronze of which the
pennies are made costs "a cents pound.
A pound will make 100 pennies. The
only way this part of the currency can
be detected would be for Congress to
change the law SO that bullion to the
value of the coin can be put in it. The
nickels to-day represent sort of fiat
currency. They are stamped by the
government as five cents and they really
represent only cent and quarter.
One of the latest kinds of counterfeit
ing is the imitation of old coins for sale
to the numismatists. One of the most
ingenious modes of deception in this
class of work is the changing of the dates
of some common issue of a certain coin
to the date of a year whose issue is scarce
and consequently high. The old liber-
ty dollar of 1904 is very scarce. 1t is
said that there are only seven genuine
coins of this issue in this country. The
coin is rated in numismatic catalogues
at value of $1,000 and upwards. The
counterfeiters have been quite success
full in changing 1901 issues to that of
1904. This is not counterfeiting in the
strict legal sense of the word, and the
treasury officials would not be able to
punish any one for this class Of offense.
But they have exercised their power to
put stop to such work wherever they
have found it going on.
Another form of trouble met with by
the treasury people in protecting the
currency is in the various devices en-
ployed by enterprising advertisers. A
number of advertisers will print fac
SMILES of coins or of the currency in
their advertisements. Coin catalogues
very often contains embossed reproduc-
tions of the coin advertised. When
these are silvered or gilded they become
dangerous. Their backs and fronts are
often pasted together and passed in the
evening upon ignorant people. Smaller
coins of the silver embossed character
are constantly being slipped into the
street car boxes where they cannot have
close inspection, particularly when they
are slipped in during the evening"
The Italians and the small fruit people
are used for the purpose of working off
all the small counterfeits.
One ofthe most successful counterfeit
ers has baf1ed the treasury for over five
years. He has adopted such an origi-
nal role that thus far no trace of him
has ever been reached. His name, even,
is not known. A fairly good descrip-
tion of him has been obtained, but be-
yond that the Secret Service Bureau has
no positive information. This counter
feiter works alone. He has no appara-
tus beyond a pen and bottle of ink,
and having no accomplices, is not in
any danger of being betrayed. His
method of proceeding is very simple.
He will take ten, a twenty, or fifty
of the greenback or national bank issue,
and in the shortest possible time can
make such successful copy of it in pen
and ink as to defy detection from any
body but an expert with a glass. I saw
fifty dollar note at the treasury made
by him of the greenback issue. The
general appearance of this bill is per-
feet. The lines about all of the portrait
work will bear the closest inspection
under a glass. The letter work is abso-
lutely correct and the signatures miracu-
lous reproductions. Even the treasury
seal is faultless. The artist that pro-
duces this class of work rarely if ever
counterfeits the same issue twice during
the same period. 1t is therefore not
possible to put bank people on their
guard against him. He skips about from
issue to issue and, while he rarely goes
below $40, yet has condescended to
make ten dollar note. He is appa-
rently always on the wing. His first
note was detected in New Orleans.
Other issues have been found in Southern
cities along the Mississippi river, and
again they would be found in Chicago
or the extreme West. His counterfeit
ing can never reach very large amount.
He apparently travels about great deal
and defrays the expenses of this travel
ing with his knowledge OF the pen. lie
is a man of such talent that he could
certainly command handsome salary
in a legitimate business. He has thus
far been so successful in putting his
wares on the market that by the time
his note is detected the slightest trace
of its author is gone. This is one of
the romances of the Secret Service.
There is not an officer connected with
the service but who firmly believes that
even this evasive counterfeiter will be
caught in the end. 1t will be hard
Job to find him. He is only one of sixty
millions of people, with no connections
or relations with the other members of
the human family to betray him. And
yet every successful counterfeiter this
country has thus far known has been
brought to punishment in the end.
p9-'If he loves the girl he can wait
for her year or two; it won't hurt him,
remarked a woman with thin lower
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